The Central New Jersey Home News from New Brunswick, New Jersey • 35

j. JydUNuAi', JULY 21. Wd5 1 rc noivic nwifu Marketable USFL stars i 1. teams may reap a dozen players from the expected breakup of the Los Angeles Express, who have been without an owner for a year and who drew barely 8,000 people a game last season. The Express, who spent more than $4 million to corner the market in college stars a year ago, went 3-15 this year and almost all those stars want out.

Among them are Young, the former Brigham Young quarterback, who signed a $40 million contract 18 months ago, then bought it out for $4.7 million in cash last winter. According to USFL sources, the league wants $2.25 million to settle Young's contract and Young's agent, Leigh Steinberg, has offered $750,000. Young and his teammate, Zimmerman, both were among the 84 players chosen in the supplemental draft of USFL players conducted by the NFL in 1983. Young belongs to the Tampa Bay Bucs, Zimmerman to the New York Giants, but Zimmerman's agent, Jim Kiles, says he may challenge that draft in court on behalf of his client, who wants to play in Seattle. Anderson, perhaps the USFL's best all-purpose runner, was awarded to Tampa Bay by a judge when he signed in 1983 with both the Bandits and the NFL's San Diego Chargers.

Now, with the Bandits likely to disband or merge in the USFL consolidation, the Chargers reportedly have been holding talks with the Bandits about buying out Anderson's contract In a case like Anderson's or Zimmerman's, there might be a complication. If they buy out their contracts, they still have to clear USFL waivers and there are still a few teams around New Jersey or Memphis who might be willing to pick up a star or two. "We haven't stopped signing players," says Steven Ehrhardt, president of the Showboats. "If the occasion arises, we'll sign someone who's loose." But like kids counting the days until Christmas, many USFL players are counting the days until their USFL contracts expire. "My contract is up in '86 and I have an option year in '87, but I'll still only be 26 when my contract is up." said Irv Eatman, the Stars tackle considered one of the best offensive linemen in the USFL.

"I'm glad I came to this league because I'd only played five games on offense in college. I couldn't have stepped right into the NFL and started then, but I'll be able to whenever I go over." By DAVS COLCEESO AP sports writer EAST RUTHERFORD Even before the 1985 United States Football League season ended, Oakland quarterback Bobby Hebert spoke of his USFL playing days as if they were history. Tm glad I came here very few quarterbacks get to start right away in the NFL," said the Invaders quarterback, who signed for $150,000 a year out of Northwestern Louisiana State three years ago. Now a free agent, Hebert is seeking $1 million from half a dozen National Football League teams bidding for his services. "I came from a small school and I got a lot of experience here I couldn't have gotten in the NFL.

Now that I've gotten it, I've got a better chance to be able to step right in," said Hebert, whose team lost the USFL championship to the Baltimore Stars, 28-24, last Sunday at Giants Stadium. Not every USFL star will be in the NFL this season Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie and Kelvin Bryant are among those staying put. But as the league goes into hibernation until the fall of 1986, there is increasing itchiness among marketable USFL players to jump to the NFL. Some will simply be taking advantage of expiring contracts; others will buy their way out, and more may be released in the general cutback that will occur in the next two weeks. USFL teams must reduce their rosters to 35 players or less by Aug.

1. The NFL is tight-lipped about jumpers because of the USFL's $1.32 billion antitrust suit against it and has a ban on signing any USFL player under contract until Aug. 1 without specific authorization. But the NFL does acknowledge the signings of several USFL refugees. The most publicized are running back Mike Rozier, the 1983 Heisman Trophy winner, who played with Jacksonville in 1983, and Trumaine Johnson, the USFL's best wide receiver its first two years, who sat out this season in a contract dispute with the Arizona Outlaws.

Rozier has signed with the Houston Oilers, Johnson with the San Diego Chargers. Then there are two running backs who made their reputations in the USFL Todd Fowler, going from the Houston Gamblers to the Dallas Cowboys and Maurice Carthon from the New Jersey Generals to the New York Giants, although acknowledgement of the signing comes from Carthon, not the Giants. The others are kicker Tony Zende-jas of the Los Angeles Express, who has signed with the Washington Red- i MAURICE CARTHON skins, and three players signed by the Cleveland Browns punter Jeff Gossett of Portland, tackle Dan Fike of Tampa Bay and running back Kevin Mack of Los Angeles. There will be more. Quarterback Steve Young and offensive lineman Gary Zimmerman of the Los Angeles Express and perhaps running back Gary Anderson of the Tampa Bay Bandits are the most likely big-name players.

And Anthony Carter of the Oakland Invaders, whose contract doesn't expire for another year, keeps talking about joining the Miami Dolphins, who hold his NFL rights. Some of the impetus actually comes from the USFL, which has reversed its position on salaries and now is trying to hold the line. "We have to monitor our expenses and our revenue," says Commissioner Harry Usher. "We have to run the league like a business. You can't keep throwing money around." USFL owners, four of whom have not yet met their 1985 payrolls, spent a good part of last week discussing how to rid themselves of costly contracts.

Participants in those meetings said they wouldn't be surprised to see the departure of some players with big reputations. "I think you'll see high-salaried players released," said Carl Peterson, the Stars' president and architect of the USFL's most successful team. "There are quite a few guys in this league that got a lot of money and didn't produce on the field." One team official, who asked not to be identified, said there was some sentiment for dumping nearly all USFL players and starting again from scratch in the fall simply resigning some of those released. Even if that doesn't happen, NFL A Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll, shown during a game last winter, has directed his team to four Super Bowl championships. Despite his accomplishments, Noll has never won a coaching ward.

11: Chuck Noll has done owls dswimfcpr By ALAN ROBINSON a carryover. The tough part about it early was that we didn't have a positive history, it was all negative." Most of the players who toiled for Noll on those championship teams Terry Bradshaw, Rocky Bleier, Joe Greene, Lynn Swann and recently Jack Lambert have retired. Winning continues with old hands like John Stall AP sports writer PITTSBURGH In the glitzy, glamorous world of professional football, Chuck Noll is plain and private. No awards. No endorsements.

Just four Super Bowl championships for his Pittsburgh Steelers, something no other National Football League team has done. "Coach of the year? You get coach of the year one t- and they fire you the next. That's not high on the 'priority list. li "The players have always deserved the recognition worth and Mike Webster and new faces like Walter NFL is taking advantage of USFL's financial woes for what they do. The players win games and the coaches lose games, isn't that always the way it's been?" be asked.

Plain ole Chuck Noll, 53, the man who turned a doormat into a dynasty, enters his 17th season with the Steelers this fall. Only three others Curly Lambeau, Tom Landry and Steve Owen have coached an NFL team for more consecutive seasons. By DAVE GOLDBERG AP sports writer When the New York Giants opened training camp last week, their first-round draft choice, George Adams, wasn't there. He wasn't the only missing top pick, and the ab sences aren't a mystery. This is hold-down year in the National Football League.

Caught in the middle are the rookies. "I think those draft choices are making a mistake," says Coach Dan Henning of the Atlanta Falcons, who are still haggling with their No.l pick, offensive tackle Bill Fralic of Pitt. "Just because they were drafted and thought highly of, they have less chance of making it or being productive by not showing up." "At this time of year, a draft choice has seven or eight practices when the assistant coaches can really give them some individual attention," says Giants coach Bill Parcells, who sent running backs coach Ray Handley to Lexington, for a week to work with Adams. "When the veteran players come in, you teach more quickly and a rookie who was absent doesn't have the advantage of going through something the second time. Everything they miss now also jeopardizes their ability to make a significant contribution early." For top draft choices, the reduction to 45 players is not really a problem no NFL team cuts its top pick as a rookie and then admits it made a mistake.

After a two-year player battle with the United States Football League drove overall salaries up more than 50 percent, the NFL is taking advantage of the USFL's financial problems to cut back its own player paychecks. Most first-round picks have been offered less than their counterparts last season and only four have signed Bruce Smith and Derrick Burroughs of Buffalo, Emanuel King of Cincinnati and Alvin Toles of New Or leans. But for others, particularly the raw ones, it's a prob Abercrombie. The team was 10-8, counting playoffs, last season and made its seventh appearance in the American Conference championship game, finishing a game away from the Super Bowl. "I guess we're in a situation now where security is a big thing," Noll said of his longevity.

"Security in my mind is that if you do a good job, you get security." Noll began his football career as an offensive lineman under Paul Brown with the Cleveland Browns, when his nickname was "The Pope" because his teammates said he was never wrong. In 1960, at age 27, Noll's pro career was ending and he was about to start teaching when Sid Gillman offered him a job as an assistant coach of the Los Angeles Chargers in the new American Football League. He was also an assistant to Don Shula when the Miami Dolphins coach was with the Baltimore Colts. Even with his first Steelers team, Noll didn't try to mold his players to a particular system. He tailored his system to his players.

Even now he says what made Bradshaw the NFL's consummate quarterback doesn't work for his current signal-caller, Mark Malone. "Dealing with people, a team is never equal to the sum of its parts, it's either greater than or less than. Football essentially is the greatest team sport and has the most potential for that kind of thing. When you're involved with something like that, the feeling that comes out of that is phenomenal." Noll's no-nosense style and rapier wit will be recalled long after he leaves the Steelers. For years, his unruffled exterior was a sharp contrast to the colorful characters who played for him Mean Joe Greene, Lambert, L.C.

Greenwood and Ernie Holmes, who once shaved his head in the shape of an arrowhead to point him toward the quarterback. Yet he was as stoic on the sidelines as John Madden was a raging bull. As for humor, Noll had this to say when asked if Franco Harris's famous "Immaculate Reception" in a 1972 playoff game against the Oakland Raiders would be one of his fondest coaching memories: "What you remember most are the people, the people you worked with, more than any particular game or situation. Rocky Bleier just catching the ball, something like that," Noll said of the former running back, not known for impressive receiving skills. Noll also has occasionally been accused of making callous remarks about his players.

Such was the case when Harris was released last year during a contract dispute and when Bradshaw had an injured right arm and missed all but one game of the 1983 season. Noll told reporters he didn't care about those who couldn't play, only those who could. Asked about Harris's holdout, Noll had said: "Franco Who?" Yet he seemed surprised when told some thought he was being insensitive. "If you have the attitude that that you can't do it because this guy's not there, you'll never be able to do it," Noll said. "The big thing is bringing the football team together.

You have to focus on the people who are here and doing the job." The cutback is twofold. The same financial considerations holding up the lem. signing of draft choices also have prompted owners to reduce roster sizes from 49 to 45 players. If it hasn't reduced the number of players in camp most teams will take nearly 100 just to use in early He'll pace the sidelines in his basic black coaching sj jacket and white polo shirt. He'll work his dry wit into weekly news conferences, and he'll always be a bit of a f-.

mystery. Few Steeler fans likely know that Noll pilots his own plane, carefully tends the roses in his backyard and i is a wine connoisseur. He and his wife, Marianne, have 4 been married 30 years and have a son, Chris, 28, who teaches at a private school in Andover, N.H. "Being a private person doesn't bother me, it doesn't at all," he said during a recent interview. Noll's career record of 157-95-1 is the seventh best in NFL history.

Yet other coaches Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers, for example are copied more often and more apt to earn a 'genius' tag. Even when the Steelers were the NFL's "Team of the 70s," their simplistic approach to football was hardly the model for the rest of the league. "If you want to adopt something, you should adopt blocking and tackling and doing it hard. That's very basic we're basic and we have been basic. It's not glamorous." Butitworks.

Losing was what the Steelers did best before Noll inherited them in 1969. Their hideous record matched their hideous gold uniforms. 1 "What I remember after Chuck's first season was that we lost all but one game, but he never lost control of the team," said former linebacker Andy Russell. The Steelers were 1-13 that first year. What followed was respectability for owner Art Rooney's franchise, until that point, the most unsuccessful in the NFL.

Noll took a team that failed to play a championship game for 40 years, to four NFL titles in six years. The Steelers have been in the playoffs 11 times in the past 13 seasons. "It's a rewarding thing, a fulfilling thing, seeing the ydung men that we've had come along and develop and play as a football team," said Noll, who has never won a major coaching award. "You watch Jimmy the Greek or somebody on TV, he-starts adding up this column and this column and says this team's going to win, just like they're robots. That's ndl where it's at, not at all.

That's for robots, that's for mathematicians." Asked if it was harder turning the Steelers into champions during the 1970s or keeping them competitive in the 1980s, Noll said: "I don't think it's easy either way. Once you've established some kind of positive history, it ends up having scrimmages it will result in new techniques. Most coaches say it will force them to get rid of developmental rookies who need a year or two to mature; hurt situation substitutions; and take awav a team's iniurv nrotection. The immediate concern, however, is signing top picks. In an unprecedented move of cooperation, agents 4 Some may disappear onto injured-reserve lists with "pulled hamstrings" or "hip pointers." Others will simply disappear.

Miami Coach Don Shula cites the example of his Pro Bowl wide receivers, Mark Duper and Mark Clayton, who played sparingly as rookies because of injuries and because they had to learn precise pass routes. Coaches also suggest the change will cut down on situation substitutions teams that play seven defensive backs in passing situations will be a rarity because they won't carry that many. "It was tough getting down to 49," says Shula. "You can envision how much tougher it will be with four more cuts. Under the old system you could develop players like Duper and Clayton.

Now that wil be very difficult to do. Special teams will suffer and it will be more difficult finding replacements for injured players." Parcells points to Conrad Goode, an offensive lineman who was in for one offensive play last season, but may be the team's starting center this year. And Dan Reeves of Denver also cites Duper and Clayton, who, between them, caught 144 passes for 2,695 yards and 26 touchdowns last season. "I thought 49 was an ideal situation because you could develop three or four young guys," he says. "That's the way Duper and Clayton were developed.

Now you can't really do that." for 19 of the 28 top choices met two Weeks ago in Chicago to try to come up with a unified plan to get NFL teams to increase their offers. "We concluded our meeting with a unified position that we are not going to accept the rollback in salaries that management is proposing," said Frank Murtha, speaking for the agents after the meeting. "Until management makes reasonable salary proposals, our clients are not going to sign contracts." The reaction from the NFL is that the agents are controlling the players. "I believe there are outside pressures in the signing of Adams," says Giants general manager George Young, usually considered one of the easier NFL executives with whom the agents must agents told their play ers they'd get them so much money and now they can't deliver. We had to regain sanity." t..